The column setup is where you will select what part of the General Ledger you would like to see along with the selection of Accounting Periods. Within the General Ledger, the system stores Closing Balances, Budget Data, Units, Period Activity, and more. In addition to the element of data you are looking to display, column configurations may be the current period the same period last year, or a twelve month net change (Income Statement accounts) or twelve month balance (Balance Sheet accounts).
Important Fields
The primary fields of the Column Designer are:
- Column # - This is an optional field, but recommended when wanting to reference the current column on another column within the formula configuration. Column #'s are recommended to start with an alpha-character and then a numeric counter. For example "A1" for the first column and "A2" for the second column. You may even want to number columnssuch as A10 or A20, in order for future handling where you may need to insert A11 as a new column in the middle.
Note: If column #'s are numeric only, this may cause issue with formula calculations. A value of "10" may be confused if you want to multiple a value by 10 at some point later. The system will be unable to decipher between "Column 10" or "the number 10". - Title - This is the text that will appear as the header of the column on the report; describe what the line is for easy understanding by the end user.
- Type - What type of data will be displaying within the column:
- Period Balance Activity - This will get the sum of dollar activity recorded.
- Period Balance Units - This will get the sum of unit activity recorded.
- Budget - This will get the sum of the budget dollar amounts created through the Budget system.
- Close Balance - This will get the ending dollar amount of the account(s). Opening + Activity = Closing.
- Close Units - This will get the ending unit amount of the account(s). Opening + Activity = Closing.
- Formula - Indicates that the Formula column value will be a Mathematical Formula.
- Open Balance - This will get the opening dollar amount of the account(s).
- Open Units - This will get the opening unit amount of the account(s).
- Stats by Segment - Both Units - This will get the Stats by Segment Configuration for the selected Formula and add both Units #1 and Units #2 together.
- Stats by Segment - Units #1 - This will get the Units #1 value from the Stats by Segment setup as selected from the Formula.
- Stats by Segment - Units #2 - This will get the Units #2 value from the Stats by Segment setup as selected from the Formula.
- Stats by Sub Type - Both Units - This will get the Stats by Sub Type Configuration for the selected Formula and add both Units #1 and Units #2 together.
- Stats by Sub Type - Units #1 - This will get the Units #1 value from the Stats by Sub Type setup as selected from the Formula.
- Stats by Sub Type - Units #2 - This will get the Units #2 value from the Stats by Sub Type setup as selected from the Formula.
- Period Balance Activity - This will get the sum of dollar activity recorded.
- Formula - Enter in either the equation of columns, or the criteria for G/L accounts you wish to select.
For more information on Formulas, either read Using GL Account Formulas or Using Mathematical Formulas. - Range Type -
Additional Fields
- Type - Net Changes is the only option at this time. Will be expanded in future versions.
- Bold / Underline / Italic - These are general formattion options for the fields and allow you to customize the appearance of the report display. The entire row is effected by the checkbox setting.
- Hide - This will hide the line from appearing on the report. This is useful if the information on the line is being used in a formula on another line.
- Flip Sign - This option will change the sign of the line. For example, a positive amount will become negative, or a negative amount will be positive. This is useful for revenue credit balances or expense debit balances to the opposite sign,
- Apply Stats - If the column configuration is a stats column and this box is checked, the system will return the stats for this line. If this box is not checked and the column is a stats column, the system will treat it as a zero (0) value in any calculations.
- Show Stats - If the column configuration has the Stats Column value referenced and this box is checked, then the stat value will display in this row / column combination.
Samples
Here are some sample screenshot of different column configurations (click image to expand):